Thursday, July 6, 2017

Baum on Ideology in the Supreme Court

New from Princeton University Press: Ideology in the Supreme Court (2017), by Lawrence Baum (Ohio State University). A description from the Press:

Ideology in the Supreme Court is the first book to analyze the
process by which the ideological stances of U.S. Supreme Court justices
translate into the positions they take on the issues that the Court
addresses. Eminent Supreme Court scholar Lawrence Baum argues that the
links between ideology and issues are not simply a matter of reasoning
logically from general premises. Rather, they reflect the development of
shared understandings among political elites, including Supreme Court
justices. And broad values about matters such as equality are not the
only source of these understandings. Another potentially important
source is the justices' attitudes about social or political groups, such
as the business community and the Republican and Democratic parties.

The
book probes these sources by analyzing three issues on which the
relative positions of liberal and conservative justices changed between
1910 and 2013: freedom of expression, criminal justice, and government
"takings" of property. Analyzing the Court's decisions and other
developments during that period, Baum finds that the values underlying
liberalism and conservatism help to explain these changes, but that
justices' attitudes toward social and political groups also played a
powerful role.
Providing a new perspective on how ideology functions in Supreme Court decision making, Ideology in the Supreme Court has important implications for how we think about the Court and its justices.

A few blurbs:

"Close observers of the Supreme Court know that sometimes its
conservatives and liberals flip sides. Using the examples of free
speech, criminal law, and takings, with glances at other topics,
Lawrence Baum develops a systematic account of why and how these shifts
occur. In doing so, he deepens our understanding of how ideology--apart
from political theories and preferences about outcomes--shapes the
Court’s decisions." --Mark Tushnet

"Baum
offers a unique perspective on the Supreme Court. He makes a compelling
case for reconsidering our traditional understanding of ideological
voting on the Court, suggesting that justices' votes may be determined
by their disposition toward particular litigants. Presenting a
challenging new way to think about decision making on the Court, this is
an important book." --Kevin T. McGuire